Just Victims of Circumstance
by Foibles and Fables
Summary: Fifty sentences: fifty small moments that mean everything. Written for the 1sentence challenge on LiveJournal.


**Disclaimer: I do not own _Legend of the Seeker_. This writing is for entertainment purposes only and is not for profit.**

**Note: Written for the 1sentence challenge on LiveJournal. These follow no chronological order.**

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**#01 – Walking**

Cara uses her hips to urge the horse forward, rocking rhythmically back and forth in the saddle, skill and sinew wrapped in a leather suit that leaves almost nothing to the imagination; Kahlan tries in vain to avert her eyes, blushing madly, willing away the _throbbing_, and this is probably the only time she's ever wished they were walking instead.

**#02 – Waltz**

When they fight side-by-side, it's like an elegant dance; their bodies and weapons move with utmost grace and skill, almost choreographed, as if one knows what the other is going to do even before she thinks of it.

**#03 – Wishes**

Her mother must have told her the stories when she was a child, the ones about good deeds, about heroes and magic and beautiful women like Kahlan – but they were just hazy shards of a life lost (that is, until she bizarrely started living one).

**#04 – Wonder**

"You know," says Richard cheerfully, with a hint of teasing, "it's a wonder that you and Cara have become so close," and Kahlan conceals everything else under an unassuming smile.

**#05 – Worry**

"Stop worrying about me," demands Cara, frustrated obstinacy nearing the point of humor, as Kahlan carefully smears poultice along the gash on her forehead – for the third time since she began, Kahlan ignores her.

**#06 – Whimsy**

When the snow really _is_ snow, not ashes of ruin, Kahlan is glad she gets to see the rare smile that fleetingly sneaks across Cara's face.

**#07 – Waste/Wasteland**

After being captured, moments exist as flashes of perception – the jab of an agiel, Rahl's smirk, the taste of Dahlia's mouth mixed with the taste of blood, the manacles shredding the skin of her wrists; and the thoughts of Kahlan smiling serenely at her are the only oasis, sweeter than water to the driest throat.

**#08 – Whiskey and rum**

"I think you might have overindulged in the libations," Kahlan states with amateur sarcasm as she carefully guides a slightly unsteady Cara to the inn bed – in retaliation, Cara grabs a firm hold of her arm and yanks Kahlan down on top of her.

**#09 – War**

In actuality, there were two wars: the one against the Keeper, and the one against that infernal heaviness in her chest – Cara wasn't sure which she was fighting harder.

**#10 – Weddings**

Tactless as it was for the witness to the marriage between the Seeker and the Mother Confessor to be undressing the bride with her eyes, it was better than acknowledging the raw feelings the ceremony dragged to the surface.

**#11 - Birthday**

"I thought the Mord'Sith didn't celebrate birthdays," Kahlan remarks teasingly at Cara's unexpected and reluctant well-wish to her (a pause, then, followed by a terse "they don't.").

**#12 - Blessing **

But what surprised (and confused…and exasperated) Cara the most was the way Kahlan began to make her feel more like a gift than a curse.

**#13 - Bias **

That day, there was a shift, and a single remorseful tear rolling down a cheek seemed to redefine justice.

**#14 - Burning **

Passion in a Mord'Sith temple (Dahlia, Denna, Triana, all the others) was fire, fingers and lips like licking flames, consuming both flesh and soul, pleasurable in its own right – it's different with Kahlan, though, gentle warmth starting deep inside and radiating out, building up instead of breaking down, so subtle yet so powerful it overcomes Cara before she's even aware of its presence.

**#15 - Breathing **

At night, Kahlan sometimes watches her, knowing well that Cara would glare if she was not asleep; she gazes at her moonlight-silhouetted frame, at the chest that rises and falls in the rhythm of some deep innocence that remains hidden while she's awake, and is awed that she's still breathing at all.

**#16 - Breaking **

Surprisingly, Kahlan kisses her first – breathless, clumsy, parted lips bumping and brushing before finding proper purchase – and it's yet another breaking of Cara Mason.

**#17 - Belief **

Kahlan offhandedly asks her if she believes in the Creator; Cara dodges the question, but can't help but consider the mysterious source of everything good and souls that are capable of not being so hollow (even if there still is much to reconcile).

**#18 - Balloon **

She's swept up in the feel of Cara's mouth, in the unfamiliar pleasure curling in her stomach, in the rushes of momentum and hot breath between her legs – Cara angles her chin and presses the broad part of her tongue against her, and Kahlan's toes curl, heart leaping, as she gasps so sharply her lungs threaten to burst.

**#19 - Balcony **

"And outside of the Mother Confessor's chambers, there's a balcony that overlooks the entire city," Kahlan murmurs over the crickets' chirping, describing the palace at Aydindril after Cara's brisk overview of the People's Palace, the places they came from; her voice is hypnotic and Cara is disgusted at the infernal struggle to keep her eyes open.

**#20 - Bane **

The festering sores and terrified look on Cara's face are like a well-aimed punch to Kahlan's gut – it's unexplainable but, after everything she's done, even if it hasn't been that long, the thought of losing her is enough to make the blood in her very veins run cold.

**#21 - Quiet **

The agiel sears Kahlan's skin, closing the infected wound in a stream of smoke and pain, and she's not making a single noise, just staring intently at Cara with bared teeth – with an acute surge of lust, Cara muses over a few places on Kahlan's body where a jab wouldn't result in so much quiet.

**#22 - Quirks **

Kahlan notices that when Cara is unsure of something (a thought, a phrase, a feeling), she'll immediately curl her fingers around the hilt of an agiel, burying the insecurity in the only thing she's ever known; all Kahlan wants to do is pull her hand free of the weapon and hold it between her own instead.

**#23 - Question **

"Have you done this before, Mother Confessor?" Cara croons as a half-joke, emphasizing the last two words, as Kahlan's mouth works on her collarbone –even though she's not looking, Cara knows she's red-faced.

**#24 - Quarrel **

One night, Zedd hears Kahlan stalking back to the campsite, heated mumbles resembling _fine, insist on the first watch again, be so unbelievably stubborn_ falling inelegantly from her mouth before she all but throws herself onto her bedroll a few feet from his.

**#25 - Quitting **

She hates the way it feels, the disgusting vulnerability when Kahlan's eyes lock with hers, and the impossibility of it all, the way what she wants is dangled in front of her on a string and she'll never be able to grab it (don't look don't touch) – sometimes she thinks about leaving simply for it, but everything about the way she's been trained prevents that from being an option.

**#26 - Jump **

They watch Richard leap over the cavernous rift, and Cara is overcome by a sudden urge to tell Kahlan that she's still there and always will be – but she doesn't, and furthermore, what would it have mattered anyway if she had?

**#27 - Jester **

"Next time disguises are needed," Kahlan declares, glancing in the direction of Richard and Zedd as she helps a fuming Cara undo the umpteenth lace of that infuriating dress, "we'll make one of them dress as a court jester."; Cara replies with a nondescript grunt, but Kahlan swears she can hear the intent of a smile.

**#28 - Jousting **

Somehow (and beyond all rational explanation), once again sidetracked from the path to the Stone of Tears, the Seeker manages to unintentionally get himself into a jousting tournament; Kahlan and Cara can do nothing but watch from the crowd, standing with their shoulders touching, repressing laughter.

**#29 - Jewel **

Eyes meet, hands barely touch in the night, hesitant and new; Cara's look like sapphires in the diminishing firelight, and right now it doesn't matter that Kahlan can't see everything that's hidden within them.

**#30 - Just **

_Confess me, I deserve it_ – Kahlan reaches out, clutches the blonde's throat, and wakes in a cold sweat.

**#31 - Smirk **

Kahlan knows she's in for it when she accidentally interrupts Cara's bath…and the Mord'Sith just turns and _smirks_.

**#32 - Sorrow **

They both think of Dennee – one of blissful, sun-drenched past days, and the other of guilty images which bring about dread she can never reveal.

**#33 - Stupidity **

Cara wasn't sure what else she was expecting when she saw Kahlan kiss Richard after he found and opened the tomb – it definitely wasn't the hollow feeling that seemed to spread through her entire body.

**#34 - Serenade **

Kahlan began to sing softly to the feeble little night wisp; ten paces ahead, Cara scowled and tried not to let herself pretend the soothing melody was for her instead.

**#35 - Sarcasm **

"I'm not sure what you're better at: combat, or rolling your eyes."; (guess what the response is.)

**#36 - Sordid **

Morals were never of the highest priority to Cara (especially not while she licks up the column of Kahlan's throat, feeling the Confessor's trembling fingers dig into her back).

**#37 - Soliloquy **

"I have feelings for you," Cara (proving she's a better hunter on her own) hisses through a clenched jaw as she releases the bowstring, sending an arrow straight into the buck: an uninterested (and certainly not the intended) audience.

**#38 - Sojourn **

Eventually, Kahlan drops a not-so-subtle hint about the Falls of Aldermont, and Cara does her best not to gape at her.

**#39 - Share **

"I suppose we'll have to share," Cara comments, all muted grin and narrowed eyes, holding up her very dry bed roll as Kahlan frowns at her own, pathetically soggy with rain.

**#40 - Solitary **

The second watch is undesirable, the fire is all but dead, and Cara glances at Richard and Kahlan; his hand rests carefully on her hip, intimate but unquestionably chaste, finally joining his love in slumber; Cara picks up a long branch and prods the glowing embers with particular ferocity.

**#41 - Nowhere **

"Where is your heart – that weakness – now, Cara?" Dahlia asks smoothly through Cara's vertigo, tenderly stroking her bruised face with her fingertips – and though Cara spits the stubborn lie at her like venom, the truth screams from the inside.

**#42 - Neutral **

"I'm not saying one word," Kahlan announced in the midst of an argument between Cara and Zedd over cooking (more specifically, the Mord'Sith's skills at such); it was a foolproof way to uphold both sensitivity and truthfulness.

**#43 - Nuance **

Nothing about Dahlia was a mystery to her – words, mannerisms, tendencies, thoughts – probably as a result of their simultaneous training and intimate bond; but there are parts of Kahlan which Cara might never understand, like the gentle-and-deadly hand and the perplexity of smile and tear at the same time.

**#44 - Near **

Maybe in another world, she wasn't like this; not broken and bent beyond repair, able to share all of herself with Kahlan without the soul-wracking spasms of dread, able to properly _love_; but the comfort quickly dissipates as reality crashes around her, and that other world is once again nowhere near this one.

**#45 - Natural **

Cara will never get used to the gentle proximity, the sleeping warmth of Kahlan's body snug against her back, to the steady rise and fall of breath and heartbeat so close to her in the dead of night (but she can try).

**#46 - Horizon **

The horizon dissolves with the dusk as they stand side by side, almost-but-not-quite touching, having lived through another silent day as victims of their helpless situations.

**#47 - Valiant **

The words Kahlan used while describing an ideal Confessor's mate to Annabelle – strong, noble, brave, a leader – applied to someone other than the obvious; she didn't fully appreciate this until a bit later.

**#48 - Virtuous **

Though she's still not a philanthropist by any means, Kahlan knows Cara is making progress when a child accidentally bumps into her in the street and she doesn't make an irritated face (and, of course, Kahlan smiles).

**#49 - Victory **

The Pillars of Creation did not signify an end, or even a parting of ways; Kahlan's gaze met hers for a moment longer than necessary in the daylight that seemed brand new, and Cara knew it only meant more time (and, ultimately, another victory to be won).

**#50 – Defeat**

Kahlan's mouth is the only entity – living, dead, or anything between – that will ever force Cara to truly admit defeat.


End file.
